Beavers to play Texas A&M in NCAA regional

CORVALLIS -- As Oregon State coach Pat Casey stepped onto the elevator at Goss Stadium with Adalberto Santos on Monday morning, Casey asked the junior outfielder where he'd like to go for the first round of the NCAA baseball tournament.

"Anywhere is fine with me," Santos said. "How about you, Coach?"

"I want to go someplace where the ground is hard and the ball flies," Casey said. "Someplace that might help you get a hit.

"Someplace like Texas."

A few minutes later, Santos and his teammates gathered in the Omaha Room at Goss and learned that the Beavers indeed are on their way to the Lone Star State.

The Beavers, 35-17 and the regional's No. 3 seed, will be playing the No. 2 Aggies (36-22) of the Big 12 Conference for the seventh time in OSU history, and the first time since 2007 when the teams split two games in College Station, Texas.

"Where we play is less important to us than the fact that we're in," Casey said. "As I look at the field and see the clubs that are in it, we feel like there isn't anybody there we can't play with.

"Texas A&M was ranked No. 1 in the country at the beginning of the season and they'll be a challenge, but our guys I think would be OK with anything. We feel like we're playing well right now, and I think we can even play better."

In the other half of the regional bracket, the host and top-seed TCU Horned Frogs (36-16) of the Mountain West Conference will face No. 4 Wright State (33-28) of the Horizon Conference in Friday's second game at 5 p.m.

Each four-team regional is double-elimination, with the 16 winners advancing to the super regionals, beginning June 5. The eight super regional winners advance to the College World Series, which begins June 13 in Omaha, Neb.

"I think we're ready to make a run," said senior outfielder John Wallace, who helped the Beavers to consecutive national championships in 2006 and 2007. "I think now is the time, kind of like we did in '07, when everything will start clicking.

"Going on the road really isn't that big of a deal. There won't be as many distractions as there might be if we were playing here, so that could be a benefit."

Most of the players agreed that Monday's announcement made up for the disappointment that the Beavers felt a year ago when they finished 28-24 and were passed over for a regional berth, a surprise and a snub of the nation's two-time defending champions.

"It's just such a relief," sophomore pitcher Kevin Rhoderick said. "Last year, sitting in our locker room and not seeing our name pop up was brutal to watch. This year, the committee deemed that we were ready to go."

Most of the Beavers agree that any doubts they had about reaching the postseason for the fourth time in five seasons were put to rest last week when they won four of five games, beating Oregon twice and then taking two of three games against Stanford on the road.

"You never know what's going to happen," Wallace said. "You can listen to what everybody says, but it's not for sure until it comes up on the screen."

The Fort Worth regional was the second of the 16 regionals unveiled during Monday's broadcast on ESPN, so the Beavers didn't have to wait long to learn their fate. At the same time, the initial reaction from the players was subdued, bordering on almost total silence.

"It was kind of funny, I think every guy knew we were in, so it was more about, 'We want to go play,'¤" Casey said. "There wasn't a lot of jubilation like we were one of the last teams to qualify. Had we got in last year, I think that's how a lot of the guys would have felt.

"Today, they wanted to find out where they were going and who we were going to play."

Texas A&M will be making its 21st appearance in an NCAA regional and 25th trip overall to the NCAA Tournament after finishing sixth in the Big 12 regular season with a 14-13 record.

The Aggies, one of eight Big 12 teams to make this year's tournament, have claimed five regional championships (1993, 1999, 2004, 2007, 2008) and have made four trips to the College World Series (1951, 1964, 1993, 1999).

Casey said the Beavers will have their hands full, but he also can envision his team playing in the College World Series for the fourth time in five seasons.

"Is there enough here to get you to Omaha?" Casey asked. "Yeah, I think there's enough here. Are we short in some areas? No question, offensively we'd like to be stronger and we'd like to have a little more depth.

"But we're not going to go back and change the way we play. We're not going to get drastically better at doing anything that we haven't been doing since September. It's just a matter of doing it, and hopefully some of the karma that we've had playing in the postseason will rub off on some of these new guys."

About tickets
Tickets to the Fort Worth regional go on sale this morning and can be purchased through the TCU ticket office at 817-257-3764. All-session prices are $60 for adults and $30 for youths. Single game reserved tickets will be $20 for adults and $10 for youths, but will not be sold until the first game. All seats will be sold as reserved seats, and once all reserved seats are sold, standing room only tickets will be available for $15 each.